Read More

According to the figures, in 2015-16 black people were closer to eight times more likely to be stopped and search than white people, while the year before they were seven times as likely.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission have said the figures are “disappointing”, and have called for a “comprehensive race strategy” to tackle the problem.

The figures show that while the racial disparity in stop and search has worsened in Devon and Cornwall over the last few years, the total number of searches has gone down. There were 5,084 stop and searches in Devon and Cornwall in 2016-17 compared to 6,236 in 2015-16.

Read More

The fact that certain ethnicities are still more likely to be targeted by stop and search persists despite pressure from the government to close that gap.

In 2014, police forces across the country agreed to reforms that were intended to eliminate discrimination in stop and search. In fact, black people were by far the most disproportionately stopped and search ethnic group across the country, and the same is true in Devon and Cornwall.

However, while nationally people of mixed heritage and Asian people also saw much higher rates than white people, in Devon and Cornwall that’s not the case.

Asian people in the two counties were only slightly more likely to be stopped and searched by police than white people last year, while people of mixed heritage were actually less likely to be frisked.

Ben Wilson, executive director of the EHRC, said: "These disappointing stop and search findings reflect many of the concerns we raised in our own race report, Healing a Divided Britain, and prompt us to call, yet again, for a comprehensive race strategy with stretching targets to reduce the race inequality that is still so entrenched in our society.”

Read More

A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesperson said: "The figures put to us show that on average, two people a week from the BME community (black minority ethnicity) are stopped and searched in Devon and Cornwall, compared to around 85 white people per week.

“We are confident that as a force, there is no bias or inappropriate use by officers in relation to use of stop-search powers within the BME community, and that our use of this power is both fair and appropriate.

“This view is backed up by the HMIC who have stated that we are compliant as part of their most recent Best Use of Stop and Search scheme assessment earlier this year. We also continually scrutinise our results, including working with an independent panel who review our stop searches.

“This work has led to further improvements in this area, which show that not only are the number of stop searches undertaken by the force are decreasing, the percentage of positive outcomes continues to increase.

"This proves that the training and intelligence behind stop searches and our use of this power, especially in the area of weapons seized, is making our communities safer."

He said a full breakdown of figures on the use of stop-search could be found on the Devon and Cornwall Police website.